Metamaterials & Photonics
Shuang Zhang
Department of Physics
Department of EEE
shuzhang@[Link]
Office: Room 521, CYM Physics Building
Office hour: Fridays 15:30-17:30
Textbooks not required
A few recommendations:
• Wenshan Cai and Vladimir Shalaev, Optical Metamaterials:
Fundamentals and Applications, Springer; 2010th edition
• Lucas Novotny and Bert Hecht, Principles of Nano-Optics, 2nd edition,
Cambridge University Press
• Stefan A. Maier, Plasmonics : Fundamentals and applications,
Springer
2
Assessment
• 50% homework
(two or three sets of homework)
• 50% Final exam
What is Photonics?
Technology employing light to encode, process and
transmit information
Examples:
–Light sources (LEDs, lasers etc)
–Optical fibres
–Optical receivers
Applications:
–Optical communications
– Display and illumination
–Optical information processing
–Optical computing
– Sensing
4
Light interaction at different scales
a >> 𝜆 Ray optics, diffraction effect can be neglected. Manipulation
of light rely on refraction and reflection, and shadowing
effect, i.e no need to consider the wave nature of light.
Examples: Lenses, prisms, mirrors, mask
Eikonal equation
Light interaction at different scales
a~𝜆 Diffraction optics, interference, wave nature start to manifest.
Examples: Gratings, photonic crystals, zone plates, phased
array Radar, X-ray diffraction
Photonic crystals Zone plate
gratings
Light interaction at different scales
a << 𝜆 Nanophotonics: Light interaction with particles much
smaller than its free space wavelength. Plasmonic particles or
particles with very large dielectric constants, such as silicon (~11).
When subwavelength particles are assembled together – composite
material or metamaterials.
1 um
Aim and Objectives of the course
Aim:
•To provide a comprehensive overview of the major aspects of modern
photonics, with special focus on novel trends and applications.
Learning outcomes of the course:
•Understand materials’ and metamaterials’ optical properties in depth.
•Understand Propagating and Localized Surface Plasmon polaritons and
their applications.
•Understand sub-wavelength light manipulation and artificial media
(nanoplasmonics, metamaterials, photonic crystals), and light matter
interactions.
• Understand the physics and mechanism of some optoelectronic devices,
such as LEDs and semiconductor lasers.
8
Materials to be covered
Recap of some electromagnetic basics
Effective medium theory
Plasmonics – surface plasmon, localized plasmon, coupled plasmonic
systems.
Metamaterials – Negative refraction, superimaging, chirality etc
Topological metamaterials and spin orbital coupling of light
Metasurfaces – how they works; meta-devices; nonlinear metasurfaces
Photonic crystals and coupled waveguide array
LEDs and semiconductor lasers
Metamaterials history: Early days
1968 – Veselago assumed a material with negative index
What can you do with negative index?
• Negative refraction
• Backward propagation
• Flat lens
• Reversed Doppler & Cerenkov
10
The Fish in the Swimming Pool
n=1.3
n=-1.3
11
Diffraction limit and Super imaging lens
air air
n0=1 n=-1 n0=1
q0 q
Propagating waves
Object n=-1 image
plane plane
Conventional microscope Evanescent waves 12
Pendry, PRL, 2000
Problem : Such material does not exist
n = ± eµ n < 0 ® e < 0, µ < 0
Sir John Pendry
1996: “radiation absorption property did not come from
the molecular, or chemical structure of the material, i. e., the
carbon per se. This property came from the long and thin,
physical shape of the carbon fibers”
1999: creating the magnetic properties of conductors by
structure
13
Negative index in Microwaves
David Smith
2000 – First realization of simultaneously negative e and µ
!""#$% &'()*$+,-./)*(0*'./$.1$234$
14
Negative Index at optics
Double negative “Fishnet” Shalaev (2005) – “ single negative”
(2005) § Pairs of metal strips
§ Both e, µ /,50*'6, § Negative e, positive µ
§>'5?,($&@4 § 2,50*'6,$(,07$8/9$+:,$*.$7.))
§ ;,(<$7.=$1'5:(,$.1$-,('
Valentine, Zhang (2008) – “bulk” Negative index
Direct measurement
15
Invisibility
16
Science of Invisibility
Transparent materials Arbitrary objects
17
Transformation optics and optical cloak
J. Pendry
2006 - propose conformal mapping to control E-M waves
l Invariance in Maxwell’s equations
l Transforms a physical space into a desired “virtual space”
l spatially varying material properties within transformed region
U. Leonhardt
18
Realization of cloaking device by Metamaterials
2006 – Cloaking of Microwaves (D. Smith & Schurig)
ε ij , µ ij
D. R. Smith
Û
19
What else can Metamaterials do?
• Symmetry breaking
• All kind of transformation optics
• Enhancement of light-matter interaction and nonlinear
optics phenomena
20
Metasurfaces
Metasurfaces – 2D Metamaterials
for controlling light propagation
(a)
N Yu et al, Science, 2011 Sun et al, Nature Materials, L. Huang, SZ et al, Nano Letters,
X. Ni et al, Science, 2012 2012 (2012)
(b) 80 =1 incidence
(c)
60
Anomalous,m=1
40
Observation angle ( )
Observation angle ( )
Anomalous
20 Ordinary,m=1
-20 -
Ordinary,m=-1
Ordinary
-40 -
Anomalous,m=-1
-60 -
-80 Experiment -
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 21
80
Incident angle i( )
Monticone et al, PRL, 2013 Pfeiffer et al, PRL, 2013 1
(d) 80 =-1 incidence (
Metasurface devices
Metalens
Vortex generation
Holography Nonlinear optics
Plasmonics: High speed + small size
Photonic crystals
• Periodic arrangement of dielectric structures in the order of wavelength
• Light propagation in photonic crystal similar to electrons in crystals
• Inherit the key concepts from quantum waves in crystals: band
structures, effective mass, tunneling, topological order …
Coupled Waveguide Array
• Mimicking the tight binding model in quantum system
• Time is replaced by propagation distance, perfect
platform to study time-evolution
• Ready to incorporate PT symmetry
Recap of E&M theory
• Maxwell Equations
• Dielectric functions of insulators and
metals
• Local field correction and Effective
medium theory
Maxwell’s equations - Summary
Maxwell’s 𝛻 ⋅ 𝑫 = 𝜌!"# (divergence)
𝛻⋅𝑩=0
equations in
macroscopic 𝜕𝑩 𝜕𝑫
𝛻×𝑬 = − 𝛻×𝑯 = + 𝑱𝒆𝒙𝒕 (curl)
media 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
• Maxwell’s equations define the fields that are generated by currents and
charges in matter
• Do not describe how these currents and charges are generated 27
Gauss to SI Conversion
Gauss Unit SI Unit
E
D
𝝆
J
P
B
H
M
𝛆 𝛆/𝛆0
𝛍 𝛍/𝛍0 Constitutive equations
𝜀 = 𝜀! 𝜀" 𝜇 = 𝜇! 𝜇"
𝛘e 𝛘e/4𝛑
Gaussian unit:
𝛘m 𝛘m/4𝛑
Only a single constant needed (c)
𝞂 𝞂/4𝛑𝛆0 All the fields (E,D,H,B) have the same unit
Constitutive equations more symmetrical
Source-free Wave equation
𝜕𝑩 𝜕𝑫
𝛻 ⋅ 𝑫 =0 𝛻⋅𝑩=0 𝛻×𝑬 = − 𝛻×𝑯 =
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
Source-free:
29
Source-free Wave equation
Aim: Need to obtain differential equations that only depend on either 𝑬 or 𝑩.
#𝑩
Apply curl on both sides of 𝛻×𝑬 = − :
#%
𝜕𝑩 𝜕𝜇! 𝜇" 𝑯 𝜕𝑯 𝜕 𝛻×𝑯
𝛻×𝛻×𝑬 = −𝛻× = −𝛻× = −𝜇! 𝜇" 𝛻× = −𝜇! 𝜇"
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
#𝑫
Now we can substitute in, 𝛻×𝑯 = and by applying the vector identity:
#%
'
𝜕'𝑫
𝛻 𝛻 ⋅ 𝑬 − 𝛻 𝑬 = −𝜇! 𝜇" '
𝜕𝑡
From 𝛻 ⋅ 𝑫 = 0 ⇒ 𝜀! 𝜀" 𝛻 ⋅ 𝑬 = 0 ⇒ 𝛻 ⋅ 𝑬 = 0, the above equation reduces to:
'𝑬 '
𝜕 1 𝜕'𝑬
𝛻 ' 𝑬 = 𝜀! 𝜀" 𝜇! 𝜇" ' ⇒ 𝛻 ' 𝑬 = 𝜀! 𝜇! 𝜀" 𝜇" = 1/𝑐 '
𝜕𝑡 𝑐" 𝜕𝑡 '
Assuming harmonic time-dependence: 𝑬 𝒓, 𝑡 = 𝑬 𝒓 𝑒 ()*% , then:
'
1
𝛻 ' 𝑬 − 𝜀! 𝜇! −𝑖𝜔 ' 𝑬 = 0
𝑐"
'
𝜔 '
𝛻 𝑬 + 𝜀! 𝜇! 𝑬=0 30
𝑐"
Helmholtz equation - Summary
𝜔 '
𝛻 '𝑬 + 𝜀( 𝜇( 𝑬=0
𝑐)
𝑘)'
And similarly for 𝑯: 𝑘'
𝜔 ' Note that:
𝛻 ' 𝑯 + 𝜀( 𝜇( 𝑯=0 𝑘! = 𝜔⁄𝑐! = 2𝜋⁄𝜆!
𝑐) 𝑘 = 𝜔 𝜀" 𝜇" /𝑐! = 𝑛𝜔⁄𝑐! =
2𝜋𝑛⁄𝜆!
which can be re-written as:
𝛻 ' 𝑬 + 𝑘 ' 𝑬 = 0 and 𝛻 '𝑯 + 𝑘 '𝑯 = 0
Helmholtz equations (Wave equation)
𝜔 '
Dispersion relation '
𝑘 = 𝜀! 𝜇!
𝑐" 31
